Product Info

Developer: Idizm
MSRP ($US): $59.99 ($49.99 with $10 rebate)
Warranty: 1 Year

System Requirements

• IBM Compatible PC, with Pentium 166 processor
• Windows 98SE, ME, 2000
• 16MB of RAM
• Available USB port
• At least 15MB available hard disk space

While I was using a game-browsing program, I happened to stumble across an ad displaying the Space Devilish from Idizm. I had never heard of the product, despite it being available since February 2001. I mean the competition for these types of devices hasn't been that great, so to this day I am still baffled as to why it was never picked up on the gaming radar. Nevertheless, I got a hold of the product, and while it certainly will accommodate any user, it's a couple of steps away from being a great product.

First let's talk about the design of the Space Devilish. It certainly doesn't look like a devilfish, but more like a stingray. Underneath the device, there are two flaps. At first I thought that this was to help elevate the SD, but instead those devices are used to secure the device on your lap. While I applaud the creativity, most gamers are playing on a computer desk, which doesn't make it entirely possible to have the device on your lap unless you are sitting further from the desk. Then you have to factor in whether or not you are using a mouse in tandem with the SD, which means you are going to either have to use the SD under the desk while on your lap, or keep it on top of computer desk. The top of the Devilfish has an elevated curve so that your hand isn't flat on the device. There is a lot of space to rest your wrist and part of your forearm, which takes some of that tension from that area. It's not as comfortable as the Claw, but it gets the job done.

The space devilfish features 36 buttons, each possess three levels of programmability. In theory, that would allow the user to program 108 commands for any particular program. While that is certainly impressive, I question the direction that they took with the keys. Now most products of this nature usually leave the buttons blank, or leave little numbers in the corner of each button. What Idizm did with the Devilfish was applying letters on the keyboard. Because this isn't a keyboard, you are bound to look at the device quite a few times while playing a game. But now you are trying to figure out which lettered button does what, because they do not match the actual commands in game. You can reduce the situation by reprogramming all of the in game commands to match your desired layout for the devilish. This sounds like work, but if you are like me, and play lots of games, you are definitely bound to confuse one button for another in game. They were on the right track by making the preferred directional buttons orange, and leaving some of the buttons black, but that's about it.

Installing the Devilfish opens up another can of worms. The disk contains an auto-installer for Windows 98SE and ME, but you have do some extra stuff if you want to get it running on Windows 2000 or XP. To get the Devilfish working on the latter operating systems, you need to actually go into your device manager and install new keyboard drivers (when's the last time you have done this?). Then you actually install the software for the Devilfish. While it isn't so difficult for Win 2k, you can have some difficulties installing the software on XP. For one, despite the device being out for over a year now, XP users have to deal with beta drivers to get the product working. This means that you run a 50/50 chance of getting uncertified drivers installed on the machine. Which is the problem that I had ran into. After about 30 minutes of installing and uninstalling, I finally managed to get the machine and software to properly recognize the Devilfish.

The profiler software has two images of the Devilfish on the right and the list of profiles on the left. To get your profiles activated, you must first locate the program executable, which can be .ink, .exe, .com, or .bat. Once you do that, you then name the profile and save. Now for a game like counter-strike, where in order for the game to register multiple commands, you need to insert a delay. The profiler does support this, but instead of offering support for individual time delays for each command, it creates a delay for all of the commands. Once the profile is created, on the larger of the two Devilfish images, you click on the button that you wish to use. A new keymapping screen now appears. In this screen, you will see three different sections, with each one possessing four different operating codes. The codes will allow you to not only enter a command, but to display text, launch a website, or start an executable. Of course, you can always use KeyMap op code, but the text mode makes your text look much cleaner. I also like the fact that you can launch websites, which can come in handy when you are working with programs like flash, and you need to get some information from a particular place. Once the operating command is recorded, if you need to see exactly what key on the devilfish does what, you can click on a button on the smaller devilfish picture, and it will display the commands assigned to the button. However, unlike the Claw USB, you can't leave your own descriptions of the buttons. If you want to print the profile, you will actually need to open the profile with notepad, and print that way. Now as a whole, I was somewhat disappointed with the profiler software for the Devilfish. But as I was browsing the site, I noticed in the forums under profiling settings exchange, they have a list of company made profiles for users to download. When you click on the game it shows this graphic that breaks the entire device down button for button. This is something that is similar to the Claw USB Software, but the Devilfish graphic looks much better. Man, if they can somehow include this in future software updates, the profiler software will clearly emerge as one of the best software applications for any gaming device.

There is also a feature that many may overlook, and that is the Force Feedback. Like other devices, the Devilfish should shake when an event in the game occurs. But that's not what happens in actual practice. For one, it's a crapshoot for the FF to actually turn on. But once it's on, it is quite loud. And this is in idle mode. Second, when using the FF test, if you take the FF slider beyond the boundaries of the crosshair, it is more than likely that a BSOD will occur. And XP users know that a BSOD on their system can take up to five minutes for the PC to reboot. Third, the FF in the Space Devilish is fairly weak. If you can manage to get it to work you barely can feel the strength of the force feedback because it feels so distant. I'm not sure if this is an issue with the device, or the including software/drivers, but after using it, force feedback isn't worth the trouble on the Devilfish.

For testing, we used the device in several games: Age of Mythology, Icewind Dale II, Quake 3, and America's Army Recon. When it comes to IWD2 and AoM, the Devilfish worked very well. With the number of buttons, I was able to effectively use the hotkeys in game for AoM. The number of keys works well with IWD2, which needs a ton of buttons to play with any efficiency. In the case of Quake 3, the speed of the game was just too fast for me to use with the Devilfish. However, in the case of America's Army Recon, I was able to use the device extremely well. I think that tactical shooters will benefit greatly from this device, as you can bind lots of commands to the buttons. I also tried to play this device on my lap. My arm felt extremely close to the rest of my body, which made it quite uncomfortable to play. I would also conclude that if you are playing with the Devilfish on your lap, you are more than likely in a relaxed position. For you to stay in that position, you will probably need to pick up a wireless mouse, and have that on your other lap. Otherwise, you are going to be moving quite a bit just to play a game.

Overall

The Space Devilfish is a fairly good product overall. With more buttons on the device than the n50 speedpad and the Claw USB combined, it definitely offers the user the most flexibility in a game. But when it comes to using it in a game, the force feedback is extremely weak, and playing on your lap isn't the best position to use this device. The sad thing is that this device is about 1-2 software updates from going from a fairly good product to a great gaming device. But at this point in time it isn't, and considering that their last software update was in May (which for XP users is beta software), it's unclear if the product/software will rise to the level of quality seen in Belkin's and Ferraro's products. For 60 bucks, there are better, and less expensive products on the market.